System for transportation of liquid



A. R. CARLYLE SYSTEM FOR TRANSPORTATION 0F LIQUID Filed Feb. 2, 1921March 24, 1925.

ATTORNEYS UNITED STATES it: i?" F l C ARTHUR It. CARLYLE, OF LOSANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

SYSTEM FOR TRANSPORTATION OF LIQUID.

Application filed February 2, 1921.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR R. CARLYLE, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, and State ofCalifornia, have invented a certain new and useful System forTransportation of Liquid, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to a system of transporting thick, viscousliquids, such as crude oil or heavy lubricating oil, from tanks, such asthe tanks in an oil carrying steamship or tanker. Many oils and oilproducts are so thick and viscous that they cannot be dischargedpractically from a tanker, through a'pipe line, by means of force pumpsand must be heated to reduce their viscosity before they can be pumped.The present practice Comprises fi tingtheitank aofthe.-,ta l vessel withheating coils, through which steam is passed to heat the oil in thetanks. This system of heating the cargo oil is very inefficient due tothe large amount of radiation and conduction of heat to the water inwhich the vessel is floating, and with some very thick crude oils, thesystem is not productive of practical results.

An object of my invention, therefore, is to provide an improved systemfor transporting liquids which at normal temperature are of suchviscosity that they cannot be practically transported through pipe linesby means of a force pump.

Further, as the oil is withdrawn from the cargo tanks of the vessel, thehead of oil in the tanks gradually falls, reducing the head on thesuction side of the pump so that the amount of oil pumped per unit oftime, gradually decreases as the pumping operation continues. It is afurther object of my invention to provide a system of transporting oilor other thick liquid, in which the 1 head on the intake side of thepump is main" tained substantially constant, so that the pumps dischargethe liquid at a uniform rate, regardless of the fall in the level of theliquid in the storage tanks. Besides accomplishing these savings in heatand time, the system of my invention materially reduces the cost of thetank steamer, by eliminating the heating coils which are now employedfor heating the whole bulk of the oil in the cargo tanks of the vessel.

The invention possesses other objects and features of advantage, some ofwhich, with Serial No. 441,802.

the foregoing, will be made manifest in the following description of thepreferred form of the invention which is illustrated in the drawingsaccompanying and forming part of the specification. It is to beunderstood that it is not intended to limit the invention to theembodiment shown by the said drawings and description, as variations maybe adopted within the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a tanker or tank vessel for carrying liquidcargoes and showing a form of apparatus by which the present system maybe practiced.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section longitudinally of the hull of the vesselshowing a form of apparatus for transferring the liquid from the tankerhull to an intermediate receiver leading to a force pump.

The common method now generally prac ticed for unloading liquid cargoescontained in bulk in compartments, or tank chambers of an oil carryingvessel, necessitates the drawing of liquid from the differentcompartments of the hull by a pump or pumps having suction connectionswith the several compartments and as the volume of oil in eachcompartment gradually falls while pumping there is a gradual andconstant reduction of head on the suction side of the pump, whichobviously materially varies the rate of discharge from the pump.

By the present invention it is preferred that the hull of the vessel bedivided into tanks or compartments, the bulk-head walls of which havesuitable valves, or gates adjacent the bottom of the tank, so that thegates all may be concurrently open to permit the uniform lowering of thelevel of the bulk of liquid in all of the tanks, and facilitatingkeeping the vessel on an even keel.

In the system of this invention the pumps, instead of drawing the bulkliquid from the individual compartments of the tanker, draw the oil orother liquid from an intermediate receiver in which the liquid ismaintained at a constant head by any suitable means operating totransfer the liquid from the hull tanks.

Instead of utilizing the great quantity of heat necessary ordinarily toheat a bulk of liquid in the several compartments of the vessel orcontainer, as the case may be, in the present system the liquid isheated in intermediate receiver which is preferably di rectly connectedto the pump or pumps.

There is a direct two-fold advantage obtained by this method; first, itmaintains a constant head of liquid at the suction side of the pump,thus insuring a uniform rate of discharge by the pump and, secondly, byheating the liquid to reduce its viscosity immediately preceding itspassage through the pump, the liquid is at its highest temperature as itenters the pump.

Various apparatus may be utilized for the practice of the present methodand, in the accompanying drawings, the system is shown as utilized inthe unloading of a cargo of oil from a tanker, the hull of which isdivided into a number of compartments or individual tanks as, forinstance, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.; some of the tanks being shown as separatedby the longitudinal bulk head 10. In the lower portion of the bulk-headwall separating each of the tanks from the other, there is arranged asuitable valve or gate 11, that may be operated by a device which may beextended to the deck 12. When all of the gates or valves 11 are openedthen the bulk liquid will assume a uniform level throughout the tankerchambers, and as the liquid is drawn from any one of the cham bers thelevel of the entire bulk uniformly lowers.

In the pump room 13, preferably arranged immediately adjacent the aftcargo tanks, there is provided a pump or set of pumps 14, having aninlet pipe 15 connected to the lower end of an intermediate receiver 16,that may be conveniently arranged in the pump room. The receiver ispreferably arranged in a position above the suction side of the pump anda substantially constant level or charge of liquid is maintained in thereceiver 16 by the transference of the liquid, for instance oil, fromthe tanker chambers or compartments by any suitable means.

As all of the tanks or compartments of the hull may be placed inintercommunication for the free flow of oil, any suitable transferringapparatus may be placed in one of the tanks, as 2, contiguous to thepump room 13, for transferring the liquid from the hull to the receiver16. A simple, practicable, efficient and suitable form of apparatus fortransferring the oil to the receiver 16 is shown as comprising amechanical elevator including a chain of members 17 passing successivelyaround suitable guide pulleys 1S, and entering the bottom of an elevatortube 19 having a mouth opening into the bottom of the tank orcompartment 2; liquid being entrapped between the consecutive elevatormembers 17 and carried upwardly in the tube 19, ultimately discharginginto a head trough 20, from which the liquid flows into the top of thereceiver 16. The elevator mechanism just described may be driven by anysuitable means, as for instance, a small steam engine 21 on deck 12.

Not only is the liquid or oil maintained at a constant level in theintermediate receiver 16, but it is heated in the receiver to reduce itsviscosity, thus facilitating its transportation by pumping through thepump and the discharge line which may be connected to the discharge pipe22 of the pump. For this purpose, suitable heating apparatus, as forinstance, coils 23, are arranged in the receiver 16 so that when aheating medium, such as steam, is turned into heating coils, the liquidin the receiverwill become heated to the necessary degree at a smallexpense as compared to the common practice of heating the entire bulk ofoil in the main hull or container. The steam for heating the oil in thereceiver is preferably the exhaust steam from the pump 14 which may besupplemented when desired by steam drawn directly from the boiler 24.The heavy oil, which is too thick to be practically pumped, or too thickto be pumped at all, is thus mechanically raised from the cargo tanksand discharged into the receiver, where it is heated immediately priorto its entry into the pump, so that it enters the pump at its maximumfluidity. Thus, a small, flowing body of the oil is heated, immediatelyprior to its entry into the pump.

It is understood that the present system is equally useful at tank farmsand in other plants in which it is desirable not only to transport oilby the pumping system, but where it may be desirable to transportvarious other normally thick liquids from place to place through pumpingmeans.

As is well known, as the last portion of a cargo of oil is pumped from avessel into distributing pipe lines, salt or fresh water is thenadmitted to the pumps and the water is driven through the pipe linesbehind the oil to a point of discharge at which there may be located asmall test cock to indicate the moment at which the water reaches thedischarge end of the system, whereupon the pumping operation isterminated. In this manner the pipes are freed of oil, which on coolingmight obstruct them.

- I claim:

1. The method of discharging oil which is too thiElito be pumped fromthe cargo tanks of a tank steamer, which comprises mechanicallyconveying the oil from the cargo tanks to a receiver, heating the oil inthe receiver and pumping the heated oil from the receiver through adischarge conduit.

2. The combination with a storage tank adapted to contain liquid whichcannot be pumped advantageously at normal temperatures, of a receivingtank arranged adjacent the storage tank, a mechanical elevator forraising the liquid from the storage tank and discharging it into thereceiving tank,

' 5 means in the receiving tank for heatlng the ceiving tank in saidpump room, means for conveying oil from the cargo tanks to the receivingtank, means in said receiving tank for heating the oil therein and apump connected at its intake side to said receiving tank.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand.

ARTHUR R. CARLYLE.

